The Sugar Workers' Strike Of 1955

Pathfinder Press has recently released a new edition of
Ernesto Che Guevara's Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War
- 1956-58.

To promote this book the Militant is running "Pages from
Cuba's Revolutionary History." This series features articles
by and about combatants of the July 26 Movement and the Rebel
Army, which led the revolutionary war that overthrew the U.S.-
backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and opened the
socialist revolution in the Americas.

This week's installment - the 12th - is on the strike by
200,000 sugar workers in December 1955, centered in Las Villas
province. The walkout took on the character of a class battle
that drew in students and all working people. The main issue
in the strike was an attempt by the Batista government, on
behalf of the sugar owners, to reduce the so-called sugar
differential. Instituted in 1946, the differential was the
result of an agreement between the Cuban and U.S. governments,
whereby Washington was committed to increase the price it paid
for Cuban sugar in proportion to increased costs of food and
consumer goods sold to Cuba. The total amount of this
differential price for sugar was to be distributed between
workers, independent sugar farmers, and the landed estates.
For workers the additional payment came to constitute an
important component of their income.

The following article was published in Trabajadores, the
weekly newspaper of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers
(CTC), Nov. 27, 1995. Translation is by the Militant.

On Nov. 27, 1955,(1) a militant student protest in Santiago de
Cuba was brutally repressed by the police, with a toll of 17
young people hurt and more than 30 arrested. This action was
the start of a campaign of revolutionary agitation that would
unite students, workers, and the people in general. By the
time of the new year, a state of open rebellion against the
regime existed.

The high point was reached during the December sugar
workers' strike, which achieved a unity between students and
workers not seen since the days of Mella.(2)

The origin of this unity was the series of actions that
followed rapidly after the Santiago de Cuba events: A protest
strike was called involving the country's high schools, during
which Jose' Antonio Echeverri'a, the leader of the FEU, was
arrested.(3) On December 2, after being released, Echeverri'a
headed a demonstration in which, together with Fructuoso
Rodri'guez, he was seriously injured and again imprisoned. On
December 4 the police brutally assaulted a group of students
during a protest on the playing field of the Cerro Stadium,
seen on television by baseball fans all across the country. On
December 7 an activity in homage to Maceo(4) by the students and
people ended with the demonstrators being sprayed with
gunfire; among the wounded were FEU leader Juan Pedro Carbo'
Servia' and Camilo Cienfuegos.

In the midst of the indignation created by these actions, a
five-minute national work stoppage was called by the FEU,
supported with determination and enthusiasm by various sectors
of workers; it was observed in thousands of workplaces
throughout the country. This positive experience contributed
to the subsequent united action by students and proletarians
during the sugar workers' strike.

Combativity versus deals

In a statement to the daily newspaper Man~ana, Conrado
Be'cquer - at the time vice-secretary general of the National
Federation of Sugar Workers (FNTA) of Las Villas - denounced
the maneuvers by the owners of the landed estates and the
wealthy sugar farmers, whose objective was "to take back from
the workers the differential they were entitled to,
manipulating at whim the final average sugar price so as to
avoid paying out what the workers had won through their sweat
in the plantations and sugar mills."

Looking back on these events today, Be'cquer recalls, "We
raised the slogan that if the sugar workers did not have a
merry Christmas, then nobody would have a happy new year. We
addressed ourselves to the workers to organize a massive
mobilization in support of the differential."

A group of workers leaders, among them Conrado, visited the
university to coordinate actions with the FEU. Later, Conrado
visited Jose' Antonio when the latter was being held prisoner
in the Pri'ncipe Castle. At that time the student leader gave
him a list of names of comrades who would be going to the
provinces to reinforce the proletarian protests. It should be
stated that immediately after arriving at their destinations,
the young people sent by the FEU got in touch with the high
school students to enlist them in the struggle.

Pressured by the workers, the leading councils of the CTC
and FNTA, led by Mujal(5) felt compelled to announce a 48-hour
work stoppage beginning December 26 to demand the
differential. They hoped that the strike would not have a
larger impact because the sugar mills had not yet begun the
stage of pressing, and only a few workers were on the job,
doing repairs and bulk shipments. Acting underhandedly, Mujal
and his gang made a deal with the tyrant and the sugar owners
that amounted to a slap in the face to the workers, giving
them a 2.77 percent differential instead of the 7.5 percent
they were entitled to.

What the Mujalists did not anticipate was that the strike
would get out of their control, not just because of its power
and scope - involving other sectors of workers - but because a
large number of the strikers rejected returning to work until
they had been paid the full differential.

"In Las Villas," Conrado explains, "the strike was
widespread. There the FEU sent Fructuoso Rodri'guez, who was
in Santo Domingo when they took him prisoner. A number of
areas were declared `dead cities,' where the town halls and
churches were taken over. Transportation on the central
highway was halted. We acted jointly with the PSP's(6)
Committees in Defense of Workers Demands, with the comrades of
the July 26 Movement's action and sabotage units, and numerous
students from the Institute. Similar things occurred in other
provinces."

Two persons were killed during those combative days:
Everardo Carrera, a worker from Los Palos in Nueva Paz; and
Heriberto Espino, an agricultural worker from Quemado de
Guines. In Ciego de Avila, Pedro Marti'nez Breito, the leader
of the Commercial Science School, was injured.

When Jose' Antonio left jail, he made a tour of the scenes
of battle, together with Rene' Anillo and Julio Garci'a
Oliveras. The latter recalls: "What we saw resembled a war
zone. The sugar workers had felled trees to impede the
movement of vehicles, and had torn up the pavement. Visiting
the towns Jose' Antonio stopped and spoke with the people. In
Santa Clara we met with Conrado Be'cquer and made efforts to
free Fructuoso. In Ciego de Avila we visited Marti'nez Brito,
who was at his parents' house recovering from his wounds. The
movement had become so strong that the army had been withdrawn
to its barracks and the workers dominated the streets."

Octavio Louit Venzant, leader of the July 26 Movement's
workers section in Guanta'namo, recounts how on the day before
the strike began he toured the sugar mills accompanied by
Osmel Francis, sent by the FEU, to urge the workers to join
the job action. The office of the Regional Workers Federation
of Guanta'namo was taken over, as was the town hall. The
members of the action and sabotage units undertook numerous
support actions. The railroad workers, bus drivers, and
merchants joined the protest. "More than an action of sugar
workers, things took on the appearance of a general struggle
of the people and of all workers."

Trade union locals that did not obey the order given by the
FNTA to return to work on December 29 were taken over by the
national leadership. Nevertheless, the agitation continued,
and on December 31 the newspapers were still announcing
disturbances in various localities of the country,
demonstrations being broken up by force with injured, burning
of bridges, interruption of telephone and telegraph
communication between the capital and the provinces, and towns
and villages being taken over by the army.

The strike was thus transformed into a formidable
demonstration of protest against Batista. On Jan. 1, 1956, the
dictator signed a decree ordering the payment of a
differential slightly greater than what was initially
proposed, but that signified a payment of only 6.5 million
pesos, less than half of the 18 million demanded by the
strikers.

Nevertheless, workers, students, and the people in general
had, in a united manner, conducted an impressive display of
power against the tyrant, sending him the "present" of a rebel
new year.

NOTES

1. November 27 is a traditional day of student protests in
Cuba, marking the execution of eight medical students by the
Spanish colonial regime in 1871.

2. Julio Antonio Mella was a founder of the Federation of
University Students (FEU) in 1923, and of the Communist Party
of Cuba in 1925.

3. Jose' Antonio Echeverri'a had been elected president of
the Federation of University Students in 1954. Earlier in 1955
he helped found the Revolutionary Directorate, and was killed
March 13, 1957, in events surrounding the Directorate's attack
on the Presidential Palace.

4. Antonio Maceo was a prominent military leader and
strategist in Cuba's wars of independence from Spain in the
19th century, and a symbol of revolutionary intransigence.

5. Eusebio Mujal, a prominent supporter of Batista, was
general secretary of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC),
using his post to stifle opposition to the regime. He fled
Cuba after Jan. 1, 1959.

6. The pro-Moscow Communist Party, which changed its name to
Popular Socialist Party (PSP) in 1944.

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